Next year, Alaska processor Silver Bay Seafoods plans to be growing 20 million oysters annually at a proposed 182-acre farm in Sitka, Alaska.

For the past decade, the company has been buying and processing salmon and herring at its plant in Sitka, but the move into oysters will allow for better utilization of the plant, Tommy Sheridan, the company's director of government affairs, told IntraFish.

"When we started in 2007, our focus was salmon alone," he said.